Hi everyone! So I’m basically a newb. I’ve played Eve before but never got too far before quitting. Something keeps bringing me back though. So I’m trying again for like the 5th time with a fresh Alpha account. I’m trying to get into Ratting & Combat Sites. Right now I’m using a Cormorant and Corax as I’m a Caldari and those are the skills I have trained at the moment. My question is this, I know how to scan down sites. But what’s the process for finding combat sites then clearing them out? Like am I supposed to use an exploration ship like a Heron to scan the sites down. Then fly all the way back to them with a destroyer/cruiser to clear them out? Or do I sacrifice a turret hard point for a probe launcher? Or is there something else I’m missing entirely. Cause the using 2 ships isn’t really plausible for me. I tend to meander around low sec space scanning stuff, if I have to go back to a safe station to switch ships every time I want to run a site. The time involved quickly adds up. I feel like I’m missing something. I’ve watched several guides on youtube, but every single one starts off with them either already in the site or having them already scanned down. No one seems to have a video off the entire process, from undocking to docking. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have any good ship build recommendations for what I’m trying to do it’d be a huge help. I can pilot Caldari & Gallente ships up to Destroyers, and I’m working on leveling Drone Skills now. It’d be nice to have a goal for a ship to level into. Thanks!

There are a few ways to go about it, depending on what you can fly and what ships you are willing to commit in the combat sites.

So the obvious one is having a dedicated scanning ship and a dedicated combat ship. It’s not too bad, if you usually just scan stuff in the same system you stage from. Can get annoying if you are more nomadic and wander off far from your staging area.

Another one, is to use a ship that can both scan down the sites and run them. It requires a few more skills, since the ships you usually do this with are T3 cruisers or something like the Stratios.

Finally, you can also roam around in your combat ship and bring with you a mobile depot and a probe scanner, so you can refit on the fly. The downside is that the ship might not have any bonuses to scanning, but if you have decent scanning skills it shouldn’t be a problem to probe down combat sites.

Never heard of a mobile depot. And I have no clue what it does but I’ll look into it. I’m far from having the ability to fly anything T3 yet. I was looking at running a Drake. I’m just barely close to piloting Caldari Cruisers. So I was thinking build up a Drake with some heavy missile and just sacrifice a launcher point for a probe launcher. It was either that or there was a T2 Gallante Destroyer I was looking at. I thought I could use the drones for my damage and use the 1 or 2 Hardpoints for a Probe Launcher/Salvager. Like are the LowSec combat sites going to be so incredibly difficult that I absolutely need that extra turret? And I guess that totally rules out the possibility of bringing a Salvager along with me too, which was my next question.

A mobile depot is a deployable structure that allows you to refit your ship in space if you are in range of it.

So basically, you plop it down somewhere at a safe spot and once it’s anchored down (after 1 minute), you now have the ability to refit you ship at this point. Once you are finished with the sites in that system, you just scoop it up again and go to the next.

Since you have the ability to refit with probe scanner, salvagers or whatever. You basically just take the combat ship you need to run the sites and refit it when you need to probe down stuff and salvage (if you want to salvage your stuff).

So yeah, from the sound of it. I think a mobile depot is what you want for your needs.

So forgive me if I’m totally wrong about this, but from the sound of it, a mobile depot sounds super expensive. Is it gonna be something cheap to replace? Like I don’t think I’m gonna be getting killed that often. But still, it’s gonna happen. I don’t mind replacing a couple Mil ISK in ships and modules. But an expensive deployable station sounds like it might make ratting unprofitable on the off chance I get ganked. Also, will take up a ton of room in my cargo hold? And can any player just fly in and blow it up?

It is quite safe against players. It goes into reinforcement after shields has been knocked down. However, if you’ve put it at a safe and someone has scanned it down, it might be better to just leave it since the player might wait for you to come pick it up.

Anyway, 1,6M is quite a low cost in my book. At least you now know it exists and can make a decision based on that.

Just remember to bookmark it once you’ve put it in space. If you put it at a safespot, the only other way to warp to it (if you haven’t bookmarked it) is to combat scan it down.

Yeah, I already bought one just to try it out. 1.6 Mil is cheap enough for me to afford and not be upset if I lose a few of them. I also got a smallish grant from a previous account I had for a couple months lol. I saved up some money from exploration and just consolidated all my assets to one account. So that helps. Thanks for the tips. It was super useful.

T3 Destoyers? I’m light years away lol. This is a week old Alpha account. I’m gonna upgrade to Omega. But I wanna play on an Alpha until it becomes prohibitive and I have to upgrade to progress. The 2x skill training time sucks. But I have some free plex from a former char from a bonus a while ago. So I’ve just been buying skill injectors till I run out. It was only like 100 plex.

You might want to consider to upgrade to Omega with the upcoming holiday event starting on Tuesday (tomorrow).
CCP announced that there will be some “presents” which should be a bit bigger for accounts in Omega state.